Just my way of sharing with family, friends, and anyone who will listen, the things that I have learned about my ancestors with a little bit about myself and my own little family in the mix.

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Something About Me Saturday: Psst...I Have A Secret

Summer of 1995

Okay, I have a little secret. I used to have pet snakes. Now this snake in this picture wasn't mine but seeing this picture today reminded me of a certain period in my life when I did own snakes. What is it about when your young, it seems as if you always have something to prove. For me, I have to admit that although I did love my snakes (yes I did just say I loved my snakes), I had them because I wanted to look cool. Snakes were cool to me...much cooler than a dog or a cat. The picture featured above was taken during the summer of 1995. I was working as a radio advertising executive for a local station. It was my first real grown-up job after graduating college. We were doing a live broadcast from my client's place of business, a pet store. At the time, I was the proud owner of two baby corn snakes which for most people would probably be two snakes too many.

Image courtesy of Wikipedia: Description

This six month old corn snake is eating a "pinkie" (a baby mouse)

AuthorDustin Miller

And yes I did have to feed them mice, but let's not go to much into that now. I was feeling the need to expand "my family" and thought it would be cool to have a full grown corn snake. My client had a beautiful adult albino that I eventually adopted. We lived together in beautiful snake harmony for about a year and half. The cool factor then wore off. The trials of snake motherhood began to get to me. Had to clean the tanks. Getting feeder mice became a chore. Then one of the baby snakes escaped it's tank. I must be getting old or something because I don't remember what happened to the other baby snake. The albino one who I lovingly named Ernie eventually died of a respiratory infection. So there ya have it. I once owned snakes. Anybody got a problem with that? LOL!

I am sorry that I am not brave of snakes. LOL!!! You will take a good care of it. :). I am not pet of snakes. I used to take good care of dogs. I am Dog Lover, honest myself. *Big Smile* Happy Mother's Day! I am not mother but I don't have kids. Have a great day!

Oh, I know the snake-owning world of which you speak! We were once a part of it, or very close. Our son owned snakes when he was a teenager, probably for a similar "look cool" factor. He worked his way up to a boa constrictor, which was kept in a tank in his room, when he was a junior and senior in high school. When we had friends over, he would often make an appearance coming down the stairs with his boa constrictor wrapped around his neck. No one screamed.

Then there were the feedings. After a while, he took to going to a nearby town, 20 miles away, to get just the right kind of mice for the boa constrictor to eat, frozen in a "six-pack" of mice. Like yours, his boa constrictor eventually died of natural causes.

So yes, we don't have a problem with that. We've been there and back. When we went on one of those air-boat rides in southern Florida (Naples?) we felt perfectly at home holding the baby alligator. Of course, its jaws were clamped shut.

A Quote By Rumi

A Quote By Philip Carr-Gomm

When we know about our ancestors, when we sense them as living and as supporting us, then we feel connected to the genetic life-stream, and we draw strength and nourishment from this.

A Quote By Laurence Overmire

Over the course of the millennia, all these ancestors in your tree, generation upon generation, have come down to this moment in time to give birth to you. There has never been, nor will ever be another like you. You have been given a tremendous responsibility. You carry the hopes and dreams of all those who have gone before. Hopes and dreams for a better world. What will you do with your time on this Earth? How will you contribute to the ongoing story of humankind?